August 28, 2022

C40: The Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, Year C (2022)

Phillip Martin

“No matter what the circumstances are, I think everyone likes the feeling of getting a better seat somewhere than the one you were originally given…One time about twelve years or so ago I found myself in a situation where I ended up with a much better seat than I started with,” begins Phillip Martin, pastor of Epiphany Lutheran Church in Richmond, Virginia. In today’s passage from Luke 14:1, 7-14, Martin says, “Even Jesus seems to understand the benefit of a better seat. But don’t put yourself there. It’s better not to self-promote. Take a place lower than you may even think you deserve and let that be how you start relating to people.” How might we change our world if we listened to Jesus’s advice and paid more attention to those “seated at the back, on the side, or alone”?

Manuscript available: click HERE